Memory 300 – Reliving as we enter Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Walt Disney World

I’m super excited to be starting a new day of adventures in the parks. Disney’s Animal Kingdom is such a beautiful and different theme park, with deep theming and immersion, it may not have as many rides as other parks, but it brings such beauty and story that it makes up for it in spades. I’m sure throughout the memories from this day, you’ll hear us talk about the sights, sounds, or smells as we are in different lands, or in queues for shows or attractions. So let’s begin our day.

As we get into today’s memory, you’ll need to imagine it’s a slightly gray and overcast Tuesday morning in December 2021. Weather reports suggest some rain possible today, but even that won’t dampen our spirits.

We’ll join this memory as we are pulling up to the parking gate, here for our early entry into the Animal Kingdom. We have one goal in our minds, get to Flight of Passage in Pandora. It’s been a while since we’ve been to the parks, so we have not even seen this land for ourselves yet, so we can’t wait. As we park, we’ll quickly grab our things and hop out, making a quick walk (no trams running yet) to the security checkpoint. I once again get selected for extra screening because I hadn’t figured out that the hardshell case I carry in my backpack is causing problems, plus if I were to just hold my keys, wallet, phone, and camera in front of me I’d slide right through. Anyways, in no time my screening is complete and we head to the very short line for the tapstile and then we’re through and into the park. Right now, the resort guests are being separated from the general admittance, and with a quick scan of a band, we’re on our way to the new world of Pandora. We make the mistake however and head the longer way by heading straight for Pandora, but this day, with it being our first visit, it was worth entering through the main entrance to the land and not the secondary entrance from Africa. However, we’ll get routed all the way back to the boardwalk and the back of the line which is halfway to Africa at this point (we were over an hour early to the park) and we’re in line. You’ll get to hear the immersive sounds of the land as we are in line outside the queue at this point, and begin discussing what we are wanting to do that day.

Again, this is a binaural memory, so you’ll definitely want to get your favorite headphones on for the best experience.